Inflame (The Completionist Chronicles Book 6)

by Dakota Krout

  The answer was not forthcoming, and Joe grumpily almost gave up. “What if I just draw it out? I’ve already seen that sometimes the ritual circles will form out of energy and lift out of the ground. Why did I never think of that before? Every time I have put it on something that was going to rotate, it was a ritual that I wanted to use long-term. Maybe most of the time, I don't even need to do that!”

  Hoping that his assumption was correct, Joe pulled out an aspect jar that was shining with a dark indigo light. Adding the jar to the array very carefully, he held out a hand and allowed the dark flames to waft out of the jar and coalesce into a beautiful quill. He added embellishment after embellishment, hoping to make a truly unique inscriber.

  Joe gripped the ethereal inscriber, hoping it wouldn’t blow up in his face. It seemed that he had succeeded, and after patting himself on the back, he quickly checked how many aspects he had to work with.

  Unique aspects: 1,719 split between proper and improper storage devices.

  Natural Unique Aspect (Uncommon) Jar: 1,224/2,150 Unique aspects. Current rate of collection: 4 Unique aspects per hour.

  Natural Unique Aspect (Unique) Jar: 193/9,558 Unique aspects. Current rate of collection: 7 Unique aspects per hour.

  “The rest of the flames are in my codpiece, huh? Should I think about spreading them out among a few friends?” he hummed out loud, getting a reaction right away from someone he hadn’t seen approaching.

  “You should see an alchemist or a healer if that’s the case, human.” Surprised, Joe turned regard the Dwarf walking toward him, an Officer with a raven-dark mustache. He saluted, and the Dwarf nodded in reply. “At ease, Candidate. I’m Major Infraction. I’m here because I’ve heard some troubling reports on your activities. Then I get here, and you’re talking about spreading fire from your nethers, and I’m worried for entirely different reasons.”

  “That’s not… I can explain this really easily…” Joe mumbled with a beet-red face.

  “Why not go over why you’re making a giant magical circle out in the open?” Major Infraction demanded, not a hint of mirth on her face. “I’m happy to explain that magic makes my soldiers nervous. They might have to fight it, or think about it, and I don’t like my Legion to think; I like them to act.”

  “That’s a terrible shame.” Joe sketched the very first symbol carefully, letting the Unique indigo flames travel along the Field Array and into his inscriber, then onto the smooth surface of the stone. “Taking the thinking out of your soldiers and only letting it be done by the most powerful of your people… it makes the powerful into cowards and soldiers into fools.”

  “You dare insult the Legion? The very Oligarchy itself?” Major Infraction glowered darkly, and a few Dwarves outfitted in an armor style that Joe hadn’t seen before walked forward to flank her. The Dwarven guards were covered from head to toe, not a single part of their hair or skin showing. “I’ll have you torn apart twice for those words!”

  The Dwarves around her moved smoothly and perfectly in sync, which tipped Joe off to what they were. “Oh? You’re a necromancer? You practice on your own troops? I didn’t think that was allowed.”

  “No fear at all?” Major Infraction grinned, breaking her stoic expression for the first time, and the undead at her side stopped closing in on Joe. “It isn’t allowed. Unless, of course, you earn your position by using the forbidden magics for the glory of the Dwarven Oligarchy. Then you get named based on your deeds. I broke the rules. Almost all of them, when I could. Hence my moniker. Now, what are you doing?”

  “Setting up a counter to Elven illusions. I need to make sure it gets to the people that most need it, but I don’t even know who that would be, except myself and Major General Havoc.” Joe traced the next symbol on the ground carefully, but it wasn’t enough: he made a slight error. The aspect flame burst from that symbol and consumed itself and the one Joe had already made. “Oh, great. Now I don’t get a chance to make corrections?”

  “Just be glad it didn’t cascade downward and take the whole magic circle.” The Major commented dryly, indicating that there was some personal experience in that statement. “Higher order materials have more catastrophic effects in direct proportion to their position on the rarity charts. You’re Candidate Joe, then? Hairless, magical, insufferable… yup. You fit the description.”

  “Hey!”

  “No backtalk; you don’t have the rank for it. Yet.” She chuckled, waved, and a few undead walked off. “I’ll gather a few Majors and above that are willing to participate. Need anything else?”

  “Now that you mention it…” Joe cracked a lopsided grin. “A protection detail would be lovely. I was educated on what a failed ritual can do recently, and I wouldn’t like to blow away half the mountain. At least, the half with the Dwarves on it. Oh, and anyone that can channel large quantities of mana. I’ll need help with this one.”

  Joe refocused on his ritual circle, needing far longer than he’d estimated to finish it. He looked up only once, finding an entire platoon arrayed around him, before turning his eyes to the ritual once more. By the time he finished the sixth circle—the Expert circle—the day was almost half over. “Okay… that one was a lot more… intense than I expected.”

  No mistakes allowed meant perfection was mandatory on the first attempt. Luckily, he was working with an actual diagram instead of going by memory, else he would have had to start over and over. Joe decided then and there to create his own personal grimoire; he needed notes, helpful hints, and tricks! These dry schematics were useful, but… not his style. “Who’s ready to power this puppy up?”

  The platoon around him stayed silent, but Major Infraction took a step forward and shouted at the Legion that was still queued up to delve into the volcano. “Anyone who can’t use mana is a weakling!”

  “What?”

  “Dude! Did you hear what Major Dudette just said about you?”

  “Bro! She was totally talking about you, I can totally use the mana. I use the mana all the time!”

  A veritable flood of volunteers came over and got into position, as directed by Joe. The Major introduced Joe to the commanders that were good candidates for illusion breakers, but they had no characteristics that made Joe remember them. Most were ‘Bros’ or ‘Dudettes’, Legion members that had become high-ranking through years of service instead of accessing the Officer track.

  Joe started arranging them, getting each of the one hundred and twenty-seven conscri—volunteers, to stand where he needed them. After they were organized in the correct positions, he placed his hand into the initial start point of the ritual and allowed an influx of mana to-

  You are unconscious! Calculating… time remaining: 30… 29…

  Chapter Fifty-Four

  When Joe woke up, he wasn’t feeling… good. In fact, he was feeling pretty ragged. Blood was soaking his white robes—currently dyed red—and a terrible headache was situated right between his eyes. He lumbered to his feet and rubbed his grainy eyes. “What in the abyss happened?”

  He looked around, discovering that all the Dwarves that had joined him were little more than mincemeat contained by armor. The sight made him gag, and he stumbled back in horror. The only people in the area that weren’t destroyed were the ones that hadn’t participated. Joe slapped his status screen open and read over the notifications.

  Attempting to start ritual!

  Caution! Mana requirements cannot be fulfilled with the current cadre of mana donors! Ensure that you have enough for stage two!

  Ritual stage one activating… ritual expansion has been completed! Mana requirements not fulfilled. Ritual is pausing. Please ensure mana requirements are prepared for stage two before resuming!

  “Nothing in here about what happened… were we attacked?” Joe looked frantically at the… armor that surrounded him, then down at the ritual. All that remained was the initial, central Novice ring. His eyes widened, and he frantically looked for what had destroyed… “Wait. Ritual expansion? Paused? Wh
at does that mean?”

  Major Infraction stepped toward him with a weapon in each hand, yet past the bluster, Joe could see a hesitation to come closer to him shining through. “Joe! Candidate, you just killed over a hundred-”

  “Not now, Major!” Joe barked at her, his hoarse voice laced with frustration and anger. He wasn’t immune to the grisly sight. A failed activation had never done something like this. “What happened? Where is my ritual?”

  Silence reigned for a moment, the only sounds echoing down from the tunnels that had been carved into Gramma’s Shoe, or the distant thunder of more Legion reinforcements closing in. Then one of the people that had been selected for an Eye of Argus stepped forward. “Reporting, Teamkiller Bro! Those fancy circles started rotating, then raced off into the distance. They became bigger as they moved, which I’m pretty sure breaks the law of conservation of-”

  “They moved?” Joe stared the Dwarf down until the words stopped. Even as he started realizing what that meant, Joe was running toward the sound of incoming troops. “They didn’t break, they just moved? No! They expanded!”

  It didn’t take long for him to reach the next ritual circle, it was about eleven meters from the Novice circle to this one. Just as he had hoped, it wasn’t broken. As the notification had stated, it was paused. He stepped on the circle, and a strange thing happened.

  He got feedback.

  Ritual of Argus: Beginner Circle. Current requirements: filled.

  He stepped over it, and a dark glow—which he hadn’t even originally noticed —vanished. Joe kept going, reaching the next circle after travelling seventeen meters. “Okay, they’re arranged out in prime distances. Next one should be… eleven, seventeen… twenty-three meters if the pattern follows.”

  Ritual of Argus: Apprentice Circle. Current requirements: Not filled.

  This time the circle hadn’t lit up, making Joe nod. He couldn’t supply a circle this large by himself; he had known that was going to be the case. Right now, what he really needed was a truckload of charged mana batteries. Were ley lines a thing? Could he tap into them if they were? The sound of metal-shod boots on stone became louder, and he glanced up to see more troops arriving. “No batteries… but this might work.”

  He rushed over to the front of the column and body-blocked them from moving forward. “Legion! I have a change order!”

  They came to a halt as his Candidacy impacted them. The platoon sergeant stepped forward and hollered at Joe, “Get the abyss out of the way! I heard that we’re authorized for war crimes today!”

  “War crimes!” The Dwarves shouted, heat appearing in their tired eyes.

  Joe walked over to the platoon sergeant, took three Ritual Orbs out, and hit the Dwarf with them and a Dark Lightning Strike all at the same time. With the pure constitution score that the Dwarf had, it was Joe’s equivalent to punching him in the face. “I said there was a change order! This operation was put into play by me, and the success of the Dwarven Oligarchy is relying on my orders being followed. Follow your orders, or are you going to take the blame for the Elves overrunning this position?”

  Not waiting for a reply, and wanting to keep the Dwarves confused—which was unfortunately a little too easy—Joe directed the Dwarves to split by highest mana pool and take a position on the nearest ritual circle. The entire platoon fit onto the Beginner circle, but the circle had only lit up when there were at least half of them on it.

  “Split this unit; a quarter of you follow me. As for you, sergeant, get on the road and get all of the reinforcements onto these circles until I tell you to stop!” Joe sent the glowering Dwarf away, then started populating the next circle. It took a few minutes before the next contingent arrived, and his ears caught a familiar conversation after a dull *thud* resounded through the area.

  “-or are you going to take the blame for the Elves overrunning this position?” The sergeant’s voice reached Joe’s ears. He laughed that his own confusing argument was being used again, but he wasn’t about to complain. Joe started directing the Dwarves into position as they arrived. The Apprentice circle took twice as long to reach the ‘fulfilled’ condition, and he lost count of the troops needed to fill the Student and Journeyman areas. By the time the Expert circle was filled, an unbroken line of Dwarves trailed off into the distance in both directions.

  Joe watched the uncomfortable Dwarves shifting slightly, their chest plates scraping against the armor of the person in front of them. The circle was glowing, but he knew he needed to hurry. If something didn’t change soon, his orders would lose their potency and the Dwarves would wander off before they missed the chance to fight. One small problem was that he was on the outside of the ritual, but it was only a small problem. He got a running start, hurdled over the line of Legionnaires, and landed in a sprint, repeating the acrobatics until he was standing at the center; the only person on the Novice circle.

  Mana requirements fulfilled with the current cadre of mana donors! Ritual of Argus Stage Two is ready to activate!

  Wasting no time, Joe activated the ritual with a chant and the first influx of mana. “Omnes videntes oculo. V videre. Si opus fuerit, his comedent!”

  Ritual requires targeting mechanism.

  The notification was unexpected, but Joe’s eyes lit up after a moment of panic. He dug through his ring and found an item he had been saving, but forgotten about. “Use this Taglock!”

  Targeting mechanism accepted.

  The bright sun was hidden as darkness covered the land. Each of the literal thousands of Dwarves that Joe had forced to help cover the mana costs of the ritual cried out and slumped as the small amount of mana they had in them was drained away, circle by circle.

  Novice circle: complete.

  Beginner Circle: complete.

  After this message, the Dwarves in that circle slumped to the ground, and cries of alarm rose in the Apprentice circle. Before anyone could react, the circle drained them as well. The circle completed, but Joe winced at the notification that appeared.

  Apprentice Circle: complete. Stability compromised! Attempting to stabilize… failed.

  Just as he read the last word, a *whumph* like fireworks exploding in the distance reached his ears. The Dwarves that fell were in a similar state to the ones that had helped with the stage one activation: nothing left but armor.

  As each circle activated after that, Joe could do nothing but take a deep, shuddering breath. He was really, really wondering if allowing five people to ignore illusions was going to be worth the death he was causing to his own side.

  Student Circle: complete.

  Journeyman Circle: complete.

  Expert Circle: complete. Stability is partially compromised! Attempting to stabilize… partial success!

  Shouts of alarm, then disgust, reached a crescendo as roughly half of all the Dwarves standing on the Expert circle disintegrated into filthy armor. The remaining Dwarves were in the blast zone, abruptly covered in the gore of their closest comrades. Joe felt countless eyes on him, each glaring with fury and planning their revenge.

  Then, one more gaze turned on him.

  In the darkest area, directly above the center of the ritual circle, an eye snapped open in the sky. It seemed as large as the volcano they were standing on, and the slitted pupil focused in on Joe for a long moment, then shifted ever so slightly to the Taglock.

  Ritual complete! Use of Taglock will apply an ‘Eye of Argus’ to up to five individuals! The effect will last up to seven days.

  Reductionist class experience gained: 800.

  Congratulations! You have reached Reductionist level two!

  Bonus: all aspect and mana costs are when reducing items or recombining aspects into items are reduced by 10%!

  “I… I have no idea what just happened.” The eye in the sky went bye-bye, vanishing with a blink and windy sigh. Joe swept his eyes across the area with a horrified expression on his face. He closed his mouth and hoped that no one outright attacked him for what had just happened. �
�Stability? The only thing I’ve ever seen that can help with that is forging…”

  “Deciding to get your war crimes out of the way early or something?” Major Infraction’s words were pure ice as she leveled the accusation at him. At that point, Joe noticed that only a few Dwarves remained standing after being drained; none of which had participated in the ritual. All of the others were out cold, waiting for their mana to regenerate.

  “Major Infraction… I have no idea what happened.” Joe waved at the ritual diagrams. “This is the first time I’ve ever done something so large with my new crafting materials. I think that the magical matrix I used was designed with the original components in mind, and switching to a more pure form-”

  “Just stop. You abyssal prove this was worth it, or I’ll come after you with my personal forces.” One of the people Major Infraction had nominated walked off in a huff, muttering to himself. “Stupid magic. Stupid human. I knew better than to get involved. Now I need to find clean underwear.”

  Chapter Fifty-Five

  “There is literally no chance that I am going to let you touch me with that thing.” Major Infraction stated clearly. She was blocking Joe with a double row of undead, and the human was starting to get grumpy. “You take another step toward me, and I refuse to take responsibility for what I’ll do to your corpse.”

  “Are you really afraid of a little needle prick?” Joe taunted her, finally resorting to childish insults to get a reaction. “Big bad Major, afraid of a little needle!”

  “Your needle has eyes on it, Joe!” Major Infraction shouted at him. “You need to go to prison, not have access to the most important Officers in the Legion!”

  “Only a few people died, and that was an accident.” Joe argued with her, wondering if he should just try vaulting over the undead.

  “A few?” She bellowed at him. Apparently, his thoughts must have been written on his face, because she warned him off right away, “You come near me, and I’ll have a new undead guard by high tea. I’m not sure you want to gain the new experience of being undead, but by the abyss, I’ll make it happen!”